Innocence Versus Experience

Blake has an interesting way of defining innocence and it relates closely to why he links Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The distinction between the two is seen in The Chimney Sweep; however two separate poems written under the same title in books with two separate motives. The version of The Chimney Sweep told in the Songs of innocence speaks of a young boy sold after the death of a parent. He does his job and finds joy and peace in his dreams of freedom granted by God. However, The Chimney Sweep in Songs of Experience speaks of a young boy who has two living parents who basically force him into misery. The end of the poem speaks of heaven as the cause of misery on earth due to the authoritative figures of the time. The link between misery and heaven could be a cynical statement often linked as far back as medieval religion in which a more miserable life on earth ensured prosperity in the afterlife. Perhaps Blake is using this as a way to define innocence as one’s undisturbed thoughts versus the cynic and corrupted effect of society on a person’s attitude. The authoritarians use religion to keep the civilians enslaved in a self perpetrated and pitiful life to retain power, causing the boy’s repressed childhood and loss of innocence through the gaining of experience. Also making an underlying statement that innocence is known until it is lost through experience, otherwise meaning we cannot acknowledge and appreciate our innocence until it is gone.